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Thursday, 22 August 2013

A thought for Thursday... and any other day you like:I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see. John Burroughs

Tuesday, 20 August 2013

I have been reading Holly Black: Tithe and Valiant so far. I love the summer, I finally get to read the books that have been marking time (in dust) on my TBR shelf.

August 20:
Top Ten Things That Make Your Life As A Reader/Book Blogger Easier (maybe it's
Goodreads or your library or different resources etc. etc.)

TOP
TEN THINGS THAT MAKE/WOULD MAKE MY READING EXPERIENCE EASIER

1. A large comfortable chair

2. No clutter or mess (in my eye line)

3. Reading glasses (sorry to be practical
but without my glasses reading is a pain in the head ;)

4. A range of books to choose from because
sometimes the mood must be matched to the reading material

5. A good reading light angled to
perfection – bright but not glaring

6. Soft music to add to the ambiance and
drown out the more unwelcome noise distractions

7. An electronic reader within reach just
in case I HAVE to read a book - RIGHT NOW!

8. A barista to top up my drink would be a
nice addition to the reading experience

9. I have a garden reading nook – summer
house – it’s perfect except for the bugs it attracts. I can’t kill them! So I
need reading assistant whose main job is to fan the air and keep the bugs
moving on.

10. The web for an endless source of advice
on what I might want to read next

I
have just completed an MG novel, it’s ready to query. I'm moving on to
the YA idea I’ve had irritatingly clawing at me while I've been doing rounds of edits and revisions. Now, I'll find tome to let it scratch at some paper.

As
always, I’ve been following Don Maass’ advice when planning my novel.

Truthfully,
I had trouble with this one: the loner, troubled, gifted teen has to have a
feckless mother. I guess I could give her a devoted (but physically) distant
dad. It seems that it’s important that she is neither overly keen nor
particularly reluctant either.

Sunday, 18 August 2013

It has been so long since I posted - after my rash of consistency - I'm right-embarrassed. ;) But, here we go -- back to the old routine:

I'm hardly back from my holiday and I'm already thinking about the end of summer and my new Y2 class: fourteen days and counting!

The highlight of my week - after getting home on Wednesday - was entering a story in the Undiscovered Voices Competition run by SCBWI BI. I have never entered before. *eep ;)

As I'm only a weekend writer of Romance, Darrah is still having trouble with Sark Hale Tarla; although, today, she is feeling a little lost.In a time long past in our history, a Sarkisian ship is stranded on Earth. Assimilation is at an early stage but it has not proven to be an easy option for either people. Now, Hale has been assigned to Darrah and her arm of men. His role is to smooth over any diplomatic - or worse - problems that might arise in the Outlands, where the Sarkisians were allowed to settle, when they are sent to find the missing human heir to the Thorn Throne, Erishdren. Rogue Sarkisians are thought to have been behind the abduction.

Darrah woke as a chill
breeze lifted the fine hairs at her nape. She sat up and forced her senses to
absorb the scene around her as she confirmed the stillness, and the scentless
air.

It took moments to control
her breathing. She had to calm her racing heart, and build composure at the
core, to ready herself to deal with the dizzying rush of information.

Not one who expected to see
the same four walls around her when she woke, Darrah took time, as she checked
close, near, and more distant, that there were no apparent dangers, to recall
her whereabouts and her current assignment. The foliage on the trees moved only
with the wind, and the shadows conformed to the expected shapes and sizes. The
high-pitched calls and other sounds were exactly as she would expect in The
Forest of Drer, all species of the Outlands: peckers, blackbirds, nutscurries,
and fleetdeer. Only her glance had confirmed that the other tents were empty – hide
walls raised – and her bow rested on a rock a long-arm’s reach away.

DONALD MAASS Write Tip #72

Is your setting historical, exotic or invented?
Add immediately one common thing we’ll recognize from our own reality.

DID YOU FIND SOMETHING EXCITING TO DO DURING JULY AND AUGUST? HAVE YOU POSTED THIS WEEKEND?

Wednesday, 26 June 2013

For work, I'm writing Individual Activity Support Plans and Risk Assessments: lots and lots of them. And, in my spare time, I'm applying for jobs. You know when you see the perfect job: not a comparable job... or even a well-paid one, but the job you find totally inspirational; the job you've always wanted but didn't know exists? I'm only allowing myself to glance over my shoulder at one of the jobs I'm applying for - I don't want it to know how much I want it. I'm working out how to sell my skilful self without resorting to grovelling or, worse still, to opting for the Oliver Twist's-eyes approach.On the Reading front, I'm having so much fun reading Tessa Dare: yet, I rarely read Regency novels.

On the Writing front, I'm writing the last words for Hal Longleat today. As it has been seen by Betas, this is the slightly more polished end of the first draft. I have specific revisions to do. I have been concentrating on speech patterns for Hal and the other pages. The last specific revision is to check the character development arcs for the other pages - I can't allow any saggy support characters to wobble their way around and through my MG novel ;)

DONALD MAASS: TIPS TO WRITE TO:

Secondary characters sometimes need zip. Here’s a simple way to work on that…

71 Pick a character other than your MC. What would your MC never, ever guess about
this person? Spring that surprise.

Thursday, 20 June 2013

DONALD MAASS WRITET TIP #68
What’s a feeling impossible to put into words?
Work until you have the words. Now find that feeling in your story. Add

Jude and me. It is nothing like a kind of gentle
nurturing. How does that make me feel? I remember all the moments when I knew
he was there even before he spoke. Jude is the crumble of tension on the
surface of my pretty, serene life. I hesitate. It’s funny, when I think of Jude
I find I hesitate a lot. I call to mind how it feels when his calloused fingers
drag across the smooth surface of my skin. With him, I always feel I’m on the
verge of some kind of beautiful. Not pruned, tamed, or even predictable, this
flower is every kind of random.

Jude innervates me.

So much for my patio life. Jude found the cracks in that
theory. He blew in and shattered it. Now, anything is possible. I’m more than
the sum of my plan when I am in his arms.

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Teaser
Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone
can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab
your current read

• Open
to a random page

• Share
two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE
CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give
too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share
the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book
to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

TWICE
TEMPTED BY A ROGUE by TESSA DARE ( A Rogue Regency)

When he
is obliged to return to his family home in widest Devonshire, war hero, Rhys
St. Maur, is certain his damnable good luck has again found a way to torment
and punish him.

Believing
in the importance of hard work and determination, innkeeper, widow, Meredith
Maddox, is pragmatic and yet – when faced with scarred and damaged Rhys St. Maur
- she trusts everything on the outcome
of the wager her heart placed long ago.

DONALD MAASS WRITE TIP #69

What’s your story type? What in it will fans of this story type hate? Say that louder. Make it impossible to miss.

There
was no way in Creation that he meant to propose marriage to her after a single
night at the Three Hounds. Her accommodations were nice, but not that nice.

I am
not a regular reader of historical romance – I particularly avoid Regency
titles – so this seemed like a great book choice to read and think about a
story tropes, or types, and find a book that says it loudly. But does it well.

Tessa Dare
has written the essence of the Regency Romance. She made the hero able and the
heroine more than willing. I shivered at the burned-out shell of the old Hall
and picked my way through the mists avoiding smugglers. I also came to love
Rhys, he is a great character, in serious need of being made to feel he is
loved and valued. And, Meredith is a strong and determined woman. Together –
that is my favourite combination.

Monday, 17 June 2013

JUNE IS HOSTED BY Hand in Hand, DONALD MAASS' TWEETS ON CREATING THE PERFECT NOVEL ;)DONALD MASS WRITE TIP # 70 (i) GREAT CHARACTERS HAVE GREAT PASSIONS - WHAT IS YOUR BEDROCK BELIEF?I'll offer BANSHEE episode 4 HALF DEAD IS BETTER THAN ALL DEAD as the bedrock belief we share.This is the beautiful track, Walk Through The Fire, by Mary Gauthier that played over the credits at the end.

I love Banshee which is funny because - mostly - I find the damage served up in You've been Framed hard to stomach.Great characters have great passions: Ana and "Lucas Hood"'s is epic.WHAT IS YOUR BEDROCK BELIEF? Do you have a track to share for my MONDAY MUSIC?

LIVING, LEARNING AND WRITING I aim to post on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.

Elaine AM Smith

Elaine writes for children and teens, she is a primary school teacher who spends her time imagining “What would happen if…”. She, and her family, live in Hertfordshire. An expert multi-tasker she finds you can do anything – walking, yoga – and combine it with reading – or writing – a book.

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We are the bricks, and the wall

RETURN: YA paranormal romance

Emma Chapman’s return to Edgware, and the school that pretty-much expelled her years before should have been studiously uneventful but her fascination with enigmatic, self-isolating, Conall Ridgeway–whose genetics put him at the eco-warrior end of the werewolf spectrum–spins her life from frightening to romantic by turn.

RETURN: YA Paranormal Romance

I was running late. But, it was nothing I couldn’t make up with a bit of effort. I shook my head. Confident and happy? I smiled. Increasing my stride, I pushed until the muscles in my legs burned. I kept up the pace even when the hill grew steeper.

Magpie Lane was hardly wider than a ribbon that edged the woods but that didn’t stop traffic using it to get to the motorway quicker. Large trucks and fast cars loved Magpie Lane. They sent vibrations running through me rising from the soles of my trainers. I felt the disturbance in the ground, even before the air pressure tried to knock me off balance. I hunched my shoulders as the cab hauling a container spat stones up at me.

Jogging on the spot, at the entrance to woodland, I ached to leave the road and go inside. My Mum was probably still asleep but I could hear her you-never-know-what might-be-in-there lecture buzzing on repeat inside my head. I should run safe. Not even I would argue that running through the woods on my own was the best definition of safe but I wanted to run-wild and the woodland offered me that. This early, I should be safe from axe murderers or perverts in the trees and besides, I was fast.

I jogged down the slope into the trees. From two paces in, I felt different. Freer. It felt so right. Running in the woods did great things for my style. Avoiding the roots and dodging branches forced my stride longer, I had to step higher. The woodland, The Weald, was only a sliver of ancient woodland that the developers forgot to build on but it felt like it could have been anywhere. Everywhere. At any time. The oaks and beech trees dominated the space and the skinny, silver-birches squeezed up beside them. I laughed. For a second, the woods reminded me of school and I needed to run a lot faster.